The Common Sense Blog

“How often do you solve a problem that is almost beyond your capabilities?” A mentor posed this question to me 25 years ago and it has inspired me ever since. When I initially reflected on what he had asked, I was a bit flummoxed. My business was going well. I had the respect of my colleagues. I seemed to have

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal explained the phenomenon of “Bring Your Parents to Work Day,” in which employees’ parents spend the day wandering around the office watching their offspring and colleagues write memos, answer e-mails and the other tasks required of their jobs. The enthusiasm for this, of course, is not shared by everyone. “It’s almost like

My parents hammered into me the value of being a good consumer. One of the principles I heard over and over was, “Be thrifty. Don’t pay for something you’re not really going to use.” So, when the following situation arose recently, I was a little befuddled. Last year, my wife and I “cut the cord.” In other words, we tried

One of the joys of my job is interviewing a wide diversity of people every year. They generally range from CEOs to front-liners. While you might think senior people would provide the best insights, there are times when someone who doesn’t know how to filter their comments says something that strikes at the heart of an issue. Such was the

Byron and Kelly showed up at my house this week to replace our 38-year-old furnace. As I watched with fascination, they removed the old beast from a very tight spot and installed the new unit. Then came the process of fabricating the sheet metal plenums that attach the new furnace to the air conditioner and the exhaust stack. Each time

My wife and I have been managing people for more than thirty years – she in higher education and I in a small business. As a result, we are always chatting over dinner about the actions and decisions of those around us. Over time, the same three words have continued to come up in our conversations – discernment, extrapolation and

This past week, a colleague reminded me of the old saying “beliefs inform behavior.” Chances are, everyone reading this post has heard this adage, or a similar sentiment. While mostly invoked when considering your own thinking and outlook, it is important for those supervising others to consider it as they oversee daily activity. Having managed people in various settings over

A few weeks, I recommended employers identify the 15 weekly or monthly decisions made in front-line positions and teaching the process for resolving each to brand-new hires. In response to that post, someone asked how intuition would play a role in that practice. “That’s a great question,” I thought. So, allow me to answer it here. First, we have to

Think about the last time, you heard someone say. “I’m sorry, the rules say we can’t do that.” What you were trying to accomplish was perfectly reasonable. Yet a policy had been put into place to prevent it. We sometimes laugh at the absurdity of these situations. But we also feel an underlying frustration at our lack of control. Over

We’ve all been there. You’re discussing something with a colleague, an employee, or a vendor. The two of you seem to be making a decision as you hash out the issue. Yet, your intuition tells you something is missing. Maybe it’s a critical insight that’s been left unsaid. Perhaps you can see that the other person is hesitating because they